With all the rubbish that we've all been reviewing lately (no offense to the writers, there's just been nothing but crap releases so far this year), it's nice to know there is at least one release separating the wheat from the chaff. Even though there are loads of excellent releases each year, there are usually only a handful of albums that I get really excited about with each successive listen. Nine Times That Same Song has proven to be one of those albums.

Love Is All hail from Sweden and are magically turning my brain into mush. They have already received their fair share of Yeah Yeah Yeahs comparisons and stand to get a few more, but that doesn't seem to matter because they really are making superior music. Were I to give these guys (and gal) my own personal comparison, I'd go with the musical love child of a jumbled Blondie, the Pretenders, and Orange Juice. Together, they've given life to one great big post-post-rock bundle of joy. Maybe I'm just reaching, and these Swedes are nothing more than a nod to post-punk girl group revolutionaries like the Slits and Raincoats. Regardless how you look at it, Love Is All are certainly in a league all their own.

The albums running time comes in at just over the 30 minute mark and they seemed to have packed in all the standard ingredients with their chic jangly guitars, smart fractured lyrics and they've even topped it off with saxophone strung throughout, which works surprisingly well. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs comparisons ring particularly true on the opener "Talk Talk Talk Talk," Josephine Olausson's pilfered take on Karen-O's "Rich Rich Rich." While on a more drastic note, I can't help but think that "Felt Tip" would've felt just as at home on the Gorillaz' Demon Days. Of the 10 songs here, each one is distinctly first-rate. The proof is in the post-rock.